Bush must let everyone in

President Bush says he trusts Americans to manage their money better than the government, but he doesn't trust Americans enough to let them into his "town hall" meetings. You have to be a Republican for that.\nFor months, Bush has traveled around the country, holding "public" meetings where he explains his proposal for Social Security reform and takes questions and comments from the audience. But they aren't very "public" if you have to be registered with the GOP to get in the door.\nTraditionally, town halls have been an open forum for the public to become informed about politics and let their voices be heard by leaders. It is the most direct form of democracy. What the Bush administration has done is present the public with something that merely looks like a democratic town hall meeting but functions more like a political version of the Home Shopping Network.\nThis is not the first time in American history something like this has happened. In the 1910s, communities across America participated in Social Centers, meetings held at night, usually in public schools. They invited guest speakers to inform them of important political issues and often held debates where both sides of an issue were represented by townsfolk and experts alike.\nHowever, in 1917, the federal government took control of the Social Centers in order to plant pro-war propaganda in a forum trusted by the people. The idea was to give the illusion that the public already supported America's entry into World War I when they were really split.\nIt doesn't matter whether you're a Democratic president, like Woodrow Wilson in 1917, or a Republican one like Bush in 2005. Promoting an open democracy is not supposed to be a liberal idea or a conservative one. Open democracy is supposed to be a cornerstone of the American way of life, no matter which side of the political spectrum you identify with.\nBush's "town hall" meetings are really pseudo-events, manufactured for television cameras. Just like in 1917, Bush is attempting to give the illusion that Americans already support his controversial policies. However, a recent Rasmussen Reports poll indicates that slightly more than half of Americans don't even understand Bush's plan.\nThere's enough idiocy on both sides to share the blame.\nWe can blame the president for undemocratically inviting only those who support him to come talk about his policies. If the public doesn't know what his proposal is, going around the country and preaching to the choir in front of TV cameras will only do one thing: make everyone else angry. If Bush is really concerned about the greater good, he would allow citizens from any political party to join him in his town hall meetings.\nOn the other hand, non-Republicans are not welcome for fear that political dissent will hinder the reform process. It may sound totalitarian at first, but let's face it: Liberals have lost so much faith in this administration and have become completely partisan. When Bush opens his mouth, some liberals hear him say something like: "My fellow Americans, blah blah blah Social Security, blah blah blah I eat Iraqi babies for protein, blah blah blah I am Satan. God bless America." As a minority in this country, liberals need to adopt a smarter attitude before they can participate in politics effectively.\nThe Republicans are in power; they need to take the initiative to maintain our democracy. They aren't fit to set up democracies in other parts of the world if they can't nourish one at home. At the same time, the rest of us need to stop feeling alienated by politics and look at them as objectively as we can. Before we tackle Social Security, America needs to have an intervention about its democracy problem.